UPCOMING EVENTS

Today Foursquare is rolling out 100 new stickers, some of which are based on badges from Foursquare’s initial incarnation.

In the original Foursquare, you could earn badges and mayorships by checking in at the businesses you patron. When Foursquare split into two apps, Foursquare and Swarm, those social features were largely reduced. You could still earn a mayorship, but only in relation to your friends not all other patrons. Starting today, the company is allowing users to earn stickers, similar to badges, based on their check-ins. The platform also promises to bring back mayorships — the crowning achievement for visiting a place more than anyone else.

Foursquare, the namesake app, has gone full throttle to compete with Yelp as a local business and restaurant recommendation tool. Swarm, on the other hand, is more like the original Foursquare in that it helps connect people in real time. For that reason, it makes a lot of sense that the company would bring gamification back to the app. People already have plenty of ways to connect, but mayorships and stickers give people incentives to do so. And while those may seem like silly incentives, they clearly worked early on.